Online Computer Terms Dictionary - D

data transfer rate

<communications> (Or "throughput") The ammount of data transferred in one
direction over a link divided by the time taken to transfer it, usually
expressed in bits or bytes per second.

Where data transfer is not continuous throughout the given time interval, the
data transfer rate is thus an average rate that will be lower than the peak
rate. The peak or maximum possible rate may itself be lower than the capacity of
the communication channel used if the channel is shared, or part of the signal
is not considered as data, e.g. checksum or routing information.